Ma's Family

Sunday, June 20, 2010

For all the fathers out there who will wake up this morning to wishes they only hear in their heart. Who will eat their quiet breakfast and dream of days past when the sweet silence was broken by squeals of glee and lopsided toast. Long after the sounds have gone the memories remain. May you spend the day remembering the good times before the silence. Happy Father's Day - Always and Forever in your heart

Friday, June 18, 2010

Shameless blog entry to get myself into a giveaway for an excalibur dehydrator! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! I SOOOOO want one for my own! I currently use an older dehydrator and it works round the clock so much that I don't even bother putting it away. It lives on my island and my husband hooked up an extra outlet JUST for my dehydrator at the island. All my bits and pieces leftover when I cook go in the dehydrator instead of the fridge and I never have to worry about what leftover bits and pieces I need to use up before they go bad. They just go right into a jar and are ready for use as needed!

So here's my excalibur dehydrator giveaway blog! My family would be in HEAVEN if I had one because a happy ma means a happy family! And check out the site it comes from! LOTS and LOTS of tips and great suggestions!

So good morning all! It's a beautiful day out today! Just browsing through the news this morning and see Spaghettios have been recalled. KUDOS to campbell! We understand mistakes happen. They watched, they saw, they dealt with it. And didn't even need Nannybama to hold their hands. I wonder at our changing world sometimes. And applaud the companies who do right just because it's right. And mourn the nanny state that has trained people that they can't think for themselves. Every action must have a law or order from the government to make it necessary.

So check your campbells everyone! Just in case.

http://www.campbells.com/consumeralert_spaghettios.aspx

I was also grabbed by a news article about the oil on the banks and local efforts to minimize damage. Here again is a story of a HUGE problem. The locals watched, they saw, they dealt with it.... and the coast guard stopped them.?! Don't clean up that mess! You can't possibly decide on your own if the danger to yourself is worth the results of not acting. And we can't possibly pass out fire extinguishers and life vests to clean up crews without the proper permits and studies first!

How can you hold people accountable for the cleanup when a governor aquires materials in their local efforts only to have them confiscated and moved somewhere else by the coast guard deemed more in need? Who's the boss? And do they have the right to destroy efforts of local areas working hard to protect their homes and livelihoods?

I pray that my children grow up to be responsible for their own actions and that they still have the opportunity to be so. And even more than wishing I'm starting NOW when the children are young. Train them up in the way they should go and they will never stray. This is the one single parenting RULE to remember. When we're taking a walk and see a wrapper on the ground we PICK IT UP. When you see someone have an accident you don't point and blame - you ask if they're ok and if you can do anything to help. THIS is being responsible and THIS should be the future for our children. And THIS should be what's taught in school. It should take priority yet sadly is trained out of children who are told 'that's not your job' and 'leave it to those who are trained'.

I have the perfect life. My husband and I have a perfect marriage and are always in exact agreement on everything. He picks up his dirty socks without asking and I've never left hanging hose on the shower rod. My house is spotless, meals are full course, always on time, healthy. The kids do chores and schoolwork with a smile and beg me to put my feet up after dinner........ NOT!!!...

Ok, so life here is hectic. But we still call it perfection!

We live on 5 acres on a hill at the edge of state forest lands. Just far enough away from town to be rural but not so far that we couldn't run in for ice cream if we really wanted to. We have a nice neighbor on one side who we get along great with. (Hi Nette!) She teaches my kids the finer social aspects of life. Such as all the different ways to describe your trips to the restroom and lyrics to some songs that people are sure home-school kids miss out on. Rest assured she's got that covered! We love her! I'd trust her with my kids any day and the kids would surely miss her if she ever decided she no longer wanted to live next to us unruly weirdos.

And that should be it but it's not.... there is a creepy old man (come on, everyone has one somewhere!) who lives a couple miles up the road who I won't go into detail about right now. But rest assured it won't be long before he's front and center.

We started a chicken raising project for homeschooling a few years ago and decided we like it so now we raise our own chickens and this year added a couple turkeys.

We do grow a garden and harvest what we can which is then preserved by whatever method I find convenient at the time. But on our rocky hill some stuff just doesn't grow well, chickens like to eat young garden plants, and sometimes I'm just so busy tending kids I don't have time to do the gardening properly so I also get produce other places as it's available and welcome any GIFTS of garden leftovers that someone decides to drop on our doorstep. God will provide! And he really does through many ways. There's nothing more blessed than returning a jar of fresh salsa to a local neighbor who passed on their extra tomatoes!

We homeschool because I believe God gave us that responsibility. There are many things I could say to 'reasons to homeschool' but that is my primary reason. God said it's my job to teach the children. And so I do.

We don't do vaccinations for many reasons. My main one again is God. But there are other reasons and I choose to not argue them. As long as decisions are made for the best interest of our family I don't need to defend them.

You can see the trend here where my values and thoughts run for the guiding of my family. I believe God will guide if I only listen. So I try to stay as close to God as possible.

Some people like to label things so if you wanted to give me a label I suppose you'd be hard pressed to find one who would accept me!

I'm Godly - but I don't follow a specific religion - I read the Bible, pray, and believe God is my savior and my only path to heaven. My husband is catholic so we go to catholic mass for him but I'm just as happy sitting in a circle in the garden with the kids and reading from the Bible and I might often be caught just gazing into nowhere just to be laughed at for daydreaming..... (I was probably just asking God in my head for some extra flowers to bloom on tuesday morning when my friend comes to visit because she'd really like them) He's my friend and I talk to him often.

MOVEMENTS don't fit either - quiverful, crunchy, tree hugger, modern, anti-school - you could find a bit of everything here I suppose but I don't think anyone would really claim me. My beliefs are long-standing and I believed in God led family planning long before the word quiverful ever lashed out as a 'movement'.

Health nut... not really - just following what God said to do. "Eat what I give. It's the only food you'll ever hunger for." Maybe it's a parable... or maybe it's literal... at my table it means eating the tomatoes God grew in my garden instead of licopene supplements made in some secret lab.

anti-vaccine brings to mind the people who are against all medical intervention... I'm not that either. We get checkups as needed, keep up to date on medical break throughs, and my son gets daily asthma treatments. But I'll exhaust every option to reduce a fever before I give an infant reducer or a pill for colic.

home-school doesn't equal anti-public school - it just means we teach at home. I'd love to be invited to participate in the school's science fair or share some text books and I have some questions I'd love to chat with the teachers about. The school has it's benefits, so does homeschool. It would be great to have a peaceful co-existence.

law - It has it's place and serves it's purpose. Every area should have local ordinance to reflect the needs of the area. It should be a guideline though. Not the nosey neighbor's entertainment to see how many things he can dream up to 'catch' illegal neighbors unlawfully allowing rain to wash out a driveway on a stormy night. Some people should be banned from complaining.

So now you know a little about me and who I'm NOT feel free to ask questions! I love to answer questions! Anything at all... really! Want to know what kind of socks I wear or my thoughts on the lady who called 911 on burger king for getting her order wrong? Go ahead and ask! I'll write a whole blog just for your answer.

Hi there! I decided on a whim (seriously, I was bored and read someone else's blog and thought to myself how silly is it to post daily about random stuff that makes absolutely no sense to anyone but yourself and who would possibly care what 1 unknown person's opinion is about the color of fruit loops) and decided it sounds FUN! A place I can randomly post my opinions about anything and everything that hops in my mind ?

I like to talk to myself! Now I can do it without anyone looking at me funny HAHHAHA

So here I go! Getting started and figuring this out should be interesting! Wish me luck!

Family Photo 2011

Ma Kettle

Hi! I'm Heather but most people just call me Ma! I'm mom to 7 children and really my claim to happiness is the family I was blessed with.
Our family homeschools and believes God will provide what we need if we only listen for instructions. And so between orders we learn, play, laugh, and love!
I invite you to take a glimpse into our life and keep in mind that what you see really IS what you get.